


Checking In

by Sourboi



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Found Family, Implied Relationships, M/M, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sourboi/pseuds/Sourboi
Summary: It's his job as Captain, really, to make sure all his crew are safe and accounted for. His First Officer doubly so.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Spock, James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 1
Kudos: 86





	Checking In

It starts as an afterthought. The away team has returned to the ship, escaping the jaws of death by the skin of its teeth. Jim hails the transporter room, as a good captain always should. “Everyone accounted for?”

“Aye, sir,” comes the reply from Ensign Calvin at the station.

“And Mr. Spock?”

“I am here, Captain,” answers Spock. His usually smooth voice, like a slow, even drum roll, has a hitch in it. But he’s alive, and he’s answering, and Jim breathes a little easier.

The next time the away team beams back up, it’s after a tense, but not outright dangerous, peace summit. The Romulans sent a delegate- the first time since the Narada incident. Once again, Jim hails the transporter room, makes sure all his people are accounted for. And, before he signs off, “I’ll see you at the bridge, Mr. Spock?”

“Affirmative, Captain. In no more than three-point-two minutes.”

Jim grins.

For a while, it’s just him on the aways, or him and Spock, and either way he always knows that Spock is there. He’s safe. And then it’s Spock going down to the ice planet, getting cut off by the blizzard, losing any signal to the ship. To Jim. Each time they try to contact him, Jim works hard to keep his voice from cracking.

The storm finally passes. The transporter room hails the bridge as soon as the survivors are on board. “Transporter to bridge,” Ensign Ferris crackles over the speakers. “We have successfully retrieved three of the seven away team members. All others are reported lost to hypothermia.”

“And Spock?” This time Jim’s voice does crack, and he doesn’t hide it. He doesn’t even feel the other eyes of the bridge deliberatly not looking at him. All he wants, all he needs, is to know that his First’s is safe. “Is he there? Tell me you have him.”

The voice that answers is rough, hoarse, not a low drum roll but the clatter of loose snares and sticks being dropped haphazardly on the head. All the same, it warms Jim to the core. “I am here, Jim. Do not, as Doctor McCoy so often puts it, have a cow.”

Jim can’t help it. He laughs. He laughs far too loudly at something that isn’t funny, because it absolutely isn’t, and that’s what he loves about his First. His Spock. “Affirmative, Mr. Spock. No cows will be had on the bridge. Don’t give Bones too bad of a time, will you?”

“I will endeavor to be a model patient. Whether Doctor McCoy will live up to the standards of a model doctor remains to be seen.”

The muscles straining themselves to snapping relax as Jim sits back in his chair. He makes a note of the other survivors, and the ones who didn’t make it back, and begins drafting letters to their families. But it’s not as hard of a task as usual, because Spock is still there and, well, if that makes him a terrible person then fine. He’s a terrible person. He’ll be the worst person in the galaxy, so long as Spock comes back safe and sound.

The away missions don’t stop, or become any less perilous. Jim doesn’t stop beaming down recklessly and getting himself into a mess. Spock doesn’t stop beaming down and usually fixing the problem with typical Vulcan grace (save the Glitter Incident on Station 173 that crew members are _forbidden_ from speaking of under pain of scut duty for a month). Without fail, on each return, Jim will tap down to the Transporter room to check on his returning crew. Sometimes they all come back, sometimes they don’t.

Every time, he adds at the end: “And Mr. Spock?”

And, every time, Spock repllies, “I am here, Captain.”


End file.
